18 Facts About Israel Katz

Israel Katz is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Likud currently serving as Minister of Defense and a member of the Security Cabinet of Israel.

Israel Katz was drafted into the Israel Defense Force in 1973 and served in the Paratroopers Brigade as a soldier and squad leader.

Israel Katz won 34th place on the Likud-Gesher-Tzomet list for the 1996 elections, but missed out on a place in the Knesset when the alliance won only 32 seats.

Israel Katz was re-elected in 1999 and 2003, and was appointed Minister of Agriculture in Ariel Sharon's government in 2003.

In January 2004, Israel Katz announced a plan to substantially increase the number of settlers in the Golan Heights.

In March 2007, the Israel Police recommended indicting Katz on charges of fraud and breach of trust linked to political appointments at the Ministry of Agriculture during his tenure as minister.

In February 2010, Israel Katz was ordered by the High Court of Justice to issue instructions based on a committee's findings that gender segregation in public buses was illegal and that separate seating could not be coerced, as Haredis were doing.

Israel Katz, undertaking to implement the recommendations, responded that the buses could carry signs suggesting that gender segregation was voluntary.

In July 2011, Israel Katz confirmed that the state subsidizes bus tickets within West Bank settlements, causing them to be cheaper than tickets for rides within the Green Line.

Israel Katz was re-elected in 2013 and remained Minister of Transportation in the new government.

In February 2019, Israel Katz assumed the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs.

On 17 May 2020, Katz became Minister of Finance when the Thirty-fifth government of Israel was sworn in.

On 1 January 2024, Israel Katz assumed the role of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the second time, following the Knesset's approval of a power-sharing agreement that led to the replacement of Eli Cohen.

In July 2024, he attended the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington, DC Israel Katz warned of the Iran-Russia alliance and the dangers posed by Iran and China, and met with the foreign ministers of Denmark, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, the United States, Germany, South Korea and Canada.

On peace and security matters, Katz is considered to be a hardliner in the Israeli government.

Israel Katz takes an annexationist view of the West Bank: he supports continued settlement construction, extending full Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank, and severing all relations with the Palestinian Authority.

Israel Katz opposes the two-state solution and the creation of a Palestinian state in any form, which he regards as unacceptable considering "our rights to this land".

In March 2016, Katz introduced a bill to the Knesset to enable the Israeli government to deport the families of terrorists, if they are found to have been aware of, to have encouraged, or to have aided the act.